


One Step At A Time

by Dreana_writes_now



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alyssa - Freeform, Amber - Freeform, Casey - Freeform, Chill, Middleschool, Preteens, School, Short, female - Freeform, firstperson, firstwork, mari - Freeform, marianne - Freeform, middlegrade, original - Freeform, sfw, stepmom - Freeform, stepparents, stepsibling, stepsister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28692885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreana_writes_now/pseuds/Dreana_writes_now
Summary: Alyssa's Dad recently married a woman named Hannah, which would be fine! I mean, Alyssa doesn't care if her Dad dates anyone. She wants him to be happy! But, as luck would have it, Hannah has a daughter named Amber.  And now she has a new step-mom and step sister who are in the process of moving in. While Hannah and dad are on their honeymoon, Alyssa is going to have to try to have somewhat of a relationship with her brand new fake sister. With the help of her babysitter for the week, her aunt Casey, and her best friend Mari, will Alyssa be able to successfully get Amber to not hate her?





	One Step At A Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So, this is kind of my first work, so, please be nice! I've only read on here, not written, but I hope you enjoy this!

I watch Dad and Hannah laugh while they dance together. They’ve practiced this for weeks. I think I might scream if I hear that dumb song again. My best friend, Marianne, sat next to me. I watch her gaze at my father and his new wife. She’s so obsessed with love, weddings, and all that, she’s been like that since she was 5. I’ve never minded it. At least until my father proposed to Hannah 5 months ago. I glance to the other side of me. Amber. My new stepsister. She looks... sad? No, not sad. More uncomfortable. The song finishes and my dad and his new wife move off the dance floor. They start walking over. Dad looks straight at me. I know exactly what he’s thinking. Nope. Not doing this. I try to get up to “get cake” but Mari yanks my arm down. Shoot. I glare at her. She glares right back. That’s the thing about being best friends, you know exactly what the other is thinking without even having to speak. Right now, she’s saying “get your butt down right now, or I swear to Oreos, I’ll never be your friend again” ugh. Fine, Mari, you win. Dad makes it to me.   
“May I have this dance?”  
I roll my eyes. This is so cheesy.  
“Whatever,” I say, trying to make myself sound like I don’t care.  
He smiles. It didn’t work.   
I give him my hand, and we walk to the dance floor. The music starts. We also practiced this for weeks. I don’t want to do this. At all. Everybody is watching, even my older cousin, Gina, whose always on her phone, is currently shutting it off. Whatever. Let’s just get this over with. We start dancing, and I got to be honest, it’s kind of fun! Probably just the adrenaline talking. During a turn I could never get right when we practiced, I slipped. Welp, that’s it for me. I’m dead. My obituary would say “Alyssa Stanton, 12 years 4 months and 8 days old, died from embarrassment and probably a concussion because that floor was not soft, she will be remembered by her best friend and father who are super sad. Her father said at her funeral to her stepmom ‘I’m sorry Hannah, but I’m too sad to be married to you, so you need to leave. You too amber.’ She was buried in a pretty graveya- “The thought was cut short when dad caught me before I could fall. Well, I guess a few decades pf life would be nice. We finish up the dance, and we walk over to the table I was sitting at before. Marianne is smiling so wide that it looks like it hurts. Once I sit down, she grabs my hand   
“I wish my parents could get married now! Then I could dance like that and show off my moves!”   
She does a quick exaggerated model pose. That cracks me. I giggle, so hard I even snort. Gina glares at me from across the room. Mari and I look at each other and laugh.

A couple hours later, I’m hugging my dad goodbye. Ambers saying goodbye to her mom as well. They get into the car that’s going to drive them to the airport, and we wave.  
“Bye Mr. and Mrs. Stanton!” Mari yells.  
My aunt, Casey, comes up behind us three girls.  
“Hey, Marianne was it? Your mom said you can sleepover at ‘Lyssa’s house tonight.”  
Mari jumps.   
“Oh! Jeez, you scared me! Yay!” She looks at me and gives me that smile that looks like it might hurt again. I smile back.

After hugging all my relatives, Mari and I get into Casey’s car. I’m just about to shut the door when Amber walks up. I forgot she was coming too. When dad told me, she was going to stay at our house during the honeymoon, I was… shocked, to say the least. Upset. She’ll be staying in the guest room, which I guess will be her room when she moves in. oh yea, did I mention her and Hannah are moving in? for the next week and a half, I have to help her move in. ugh.  
She sits down in the car and puts her seatbelt on. I try to ignore her, even though I’m sitting in the middle in the back seat, which means I’m less than a foot away from her. Casey checks that were all buckled up and starts driving. She turns on some Christmas music, even though it’s not even thanksgiving yet. After about half an hour, Were at my house. She parks the car and We get inside. I put my coat in the closet, and I notice amber is just holding hers, standing awkwardly, looking at Casey.  
“Here,” I say, finally, and give her my hand.  
“Uhm…”  
“Your coat?”  
“Oh, uh yea. Sorry.” She hands me her coat.  
“Boots go over there,” I point to the corner by the closet, where all of dad and my Sneakers and boots lay, looking bored.  
She quickly kicks off her shoes, and we walk to the kitchen, where Mari is sitting on a barstool at the island talking to Casey.  
“At my wedding, I’m going to have a huge rose display like Aly’s dad and Stepmom did, except with violets and sunflowers!”  
We sit next to Mari as she talks.   
“What are you cooking?” I ask. The stove is too far away to tell.  
“Just some spaghetti. Garlic bread is in the oven!” Casey responds excitedly. When Casey was in college, she went to culinary school, and now she works in a big fancy restaurant. At least, that’s what Dad tells me. She moved away 4 and a half years ago, when I was 7, so I don’t know her that well. She’s still my dad’s younger sister, so we talk on holidays, but only small talk.  
“Ooh! That’s my favorite! My Grandma used to make it all the time when I lived with her.” Amber suddenly said.  
We went silent and looked at her. She looked back. That’s the most I’ve ever heard her say.  
Mari cleared her throat.  
“So, Casey, what seasonings did you use for the sauce? It smells amazing”  
Casey lit up and started talking about seasonings and herbs and how to use them. I noticed Amber looked away shyly.

A couple hours later, we had finished dinner and had watched a movie. I guess Mari was tired, because she fell asleep halfway into the movie. After it was finished, Casey piped up.  
“I’ll get the dishes knocked out, ‘lyssa, how about you take Amber up to her room and get her settled? I don’t think Marianne will mind to much if you let her sleep a little bit longer.”  
Mari snored.  
I show Amber her room.  
“Um, so when we actually start the moving you in stuff, we can probably move furniture around, whichever way you want. Um. Yea.” I blurt out.  
“Oh, um, cool. Thanks.” She puts her bag down and sits on her bed. I take that as my cue to leave.  
I walk out, and I start to close the door, but before I can finish closing it, she puts her hand up.  
“Wait!”  
“Um, Yea?”  
“Please, um. Please leave it open.”  
“oh. Uh. Ok.” I say.  
I walk down the hall to my room and grab some pajamas. I change my clothes, and as I’m brushing my hair out, Mari walks in, with her eyes half closed. She looks like she might drop right there.  
“Hey!” I say, sounding a little too cheery.  
“mhhmm.”   
Well, maybe I can talk to her tomorrow.  
I make room for her on my bed, and we fall asleep. Well, she does immediately, while I lay there for about an hour based on my cat alarm clock. It looks just like my cat, Georgina the 8th, G.G. for short. I thought about the fact that I would have a sister now. Would Dad, love her more than me? She seems shy and sad now, but maybe that’s a ploy for my dad to feel bad for her and love her more than me. Maybe id become like Cinderella, and I’d be their maid. She and a Hannah would be spoiled, using diamond forks for breakfast, and I’d be dropped, forced to use a thin twig, and forced to eat leaves and berries from the trees on the trail near my house, not allowed to have any luxuries. No! that wouldn’t happen. Right? I mean Cinderella’s just a fairytale. That wouldn’t happen to a totally normal, not fairy tale type girl like me, right? Right?

The next morning, I wake up to the smell of Chocolate chip pancakes and G.G about to pounce on Mari. I quickly grab her away.  
“No! bad kitty! My best friend is not your Breakfast. Go eat some kibble or something.” She meows, and I let her go. She runs off, presumably to go eat some kibble or something. Mari stretches.  
“Oh! You’re awake!”  
She yawns.  
“Yea, I couldn’t sleep with the sound of you torturing your cat!”  
“Hey, I’m not torturing her, she loves me!”  
“Oh yea? Then where is she now?”  
We laugh so hard I swear to Oreos my stomach almost fell out of my throat.  
“Girls! Pancakes”  
“Ooh! I love pancakes!” Mari says. She dives out of my bed and trips on her bag and falls face first onto my carpet.  
“Hmm. I could’ve sworn that there was a pillow here.”  
We burst out laughing.  
We’re still giggling when we make our way to the kitchen.  
“Hey girls! I thought you two must’ve hit the floor so hard that you got knocked out, you were up there so long after that crash upstairs.”  
We looked at each other and laughed.  
I noticed Amber sat at the chair at the end of the island, reading a book while eating her pancakes. Mari must’ve noticed me staring, because she said,  
“Hey, Amber, Whatcha’ readin’? And when did you get up? You already look ready for the day!” she smiled.  
Amber looked up and hesitantly said,  
“Oh, um. Just a book I found at the library. And um. 6:30.  
My eyes went wide.  
“What? But its 8:00! And a Saturday! That’s so early.”  
“Yeah, I guess, but I wake up this early all the time.”  
“Woah.” Mari whispered.  
I guess Amber heard that, because she giggled a bit. I laughed a little bit too, and soon we were all almost dying we were laughing so hard. Once the laughter quieted down, though, Mari spouted out,  
“Are we done yet? Because those pancakes smell really good!”   
And we were all laughing again.  
After pancakes had been eaten, and dishes had been cleaned, Mari and I took showers and got ready for the day. We had to go to Amber’s house -or rather, ambers old house- to pick up her Furniture and all her things. we’re going to finish moving everything out of her house when Dad and Hannah get home, but for now we are just going to clean out Amber’s room.  
Once we get inside, Casey makes sure there’s no food in the kitchen that could go bad. I notice Amber feeds some fish in a huge tank. I didn’t know she had fish. Let alone a huge tank of them. Are they coming to my house? Where are they going to go? Are they going to replace the TV? Where is the Tv going to go? In Amber’s room? So only she can watch tv? So, I can never watch the tv aga-  
“ALY!” Mari suddenly yelled.  
“Huh?”  
“I have been calling your name for the last five minutes!”   
I guess her yell wasn’t sudden. Oops.  
“Casey wants you to help Amber pack up her room.”  
“Oh, me? But can’t you do i- “  
“No buts Alyssa Elizabeth Amelia Stanton! I must help Casey in the kitchen! You have to go help your step-sister, no matter how much you don’t want to.”  
I roll my eyes. She uses my full name whenever she means business, but she means business a lot. Whatever, Marianne Roosevelt Roberts, you win.

I walk up the stairs to her bedroom, or at least, where I hope her bedroom is, and walk down the hallway. I see her through one of the doorways putting clothes in a bag.  
“Hey,” I say, hesitantly.  
She looks up.  
“Oh. Um. Hey” She smiles a bit.  
I try to smile back, but I think it comes off as a grimace, because her smile drops.  
“Uh, sorry. Casey said you needed some help?”  
“Well, not needed, but welcome.” She smiles again  
I smile back, and this time I think it comes off as a smile.  
“So, Maybe just start taking all the clothes from the bottom 3 drawers and put them in that bag? No organization needed. And I’ll start with the top two?”  
“Sounds good.”  
We do that for about 15 minutes before moving onto the closet. We finish the closet in about 30 minutes after that. By the time Mari is finished downstairs and comes up to help us, the only thing left to pack up is her desk, bed, and nightstand. With Mari’s help at the end, we packed up a closet full of clothes, a dresser, two big shelves, one nightstand, one desk, and all the extra stuff in her room. Her room looks like one of the rooms realtors’ stage on that home renovation show dad and I watch on Tuesdays and Saturdays.   
Wait.  
When Hannah and Amber move in, will dad and I stop watching it? Will it become a Dad-and-Hannah type thing instead of a Dad-and-Alyssa type thing? Even worse, will it become a Dad-and-Hannah-and-Amber type thing? Will it become a Dad-and-Hannah-and-Amber-but-never-Alyssa type thing? Will I have to go somewhere else when they will definitely watch it together without me, so I don’t disturb them? Will Dad stop loving me and instead love Hannah and Ambe-  
“Alyssa?” Amber said, with a bit of worry in her voice  
“Hmm?”  
“You kind of zoned out there. Are you alright?”  
“Oh! Heh! Yep! I’m good! One hundred and ten percent good!”  
She looked at me quizzically. Mari popped in  
“Are we ready to go?”  
“Yes!” Amber and I said at the same time.  
“Oh, Oops, sorry!”  
Mari giggled.  
“Then let’s go, dummies!”  
After helping Casey put Amber’s furniture in the back of her truck and putting Ambers bags in there too, we headed out to the next errand. When I asked what that was, she only said to pick up her boys and girl. What in the world does that mean? Is Amber in a polyamorous relationship with two boys and a girl? No, that can’t be. She’s only twelve, same as me, and we’re too young for any relationships. But wait, she did say “My Boys and My girl” Does she own three random people? Probably not. Then I thought, wait. Does Amber have any more siblings? I swear to Oreos if dad didn’t tell me that I had possibly anymore step siblings…   
We get to someone’s house. “Uh Oh,” I think. “This can’t be good.”   
Amber and Casey go inside, and are there for about ten minutes before Amber comes out with… two dogs on a leash and a cat? What?! Behind her, Casey and some stranger come out with two dog kennels, one cat kennel, and bowls, toys, leashes, pet food, and all the stuff you’d need if you have three pets. WHAT. This MAYBE would’ve been fine, if I had ANY IDEA Amber had three pets. Plus, the fish? This is totally not ok. Not. Ok.  
I guess Mari noticed me fuming, because she grabbed my hand and said,  
“It’s going to be okay. If you moved in with her instead of the other way around, would you want to give up G.G.?”  
Well. She has a point. That calmed me a bit. But I’m still kind of mad. I mean? What? Why was I not informed about this? I want to scream and cry and light something on fire all at the same time.  
Amber opened the door and started getting her pets in.  
“This is what you meant by ‘my boys and girl’?” I asked  
“Yep!” She was grinning so hard. It was kind of hard to stay mad at her when she’s smiling like that, but I stuck through.  
Casey gets into the front seat.  
“Hey! You girls have your seatbelts on?” She casually asked, as if this isn’t an absolute crazy thing that’s happening right now.  
“Yep!”  
“Yes.”  
I nodded. I decided I wasn’t going to speak for the rest of the night.

“Uno!”  
So that didn’t work. After we ate dinner and helped Amber with her room, Mari said we haaad to play Uno. I guess she noticed I wasn’t talking and got the brilliant idea to play Uno, my absolute favorite card game. That sly fox.  
“Ugh, dang-it! How are you so good at this game Alyssa!” Casey grumbled.  
“A magician never reveals her secrets!” I winked.  
“Whatever, I’m going to make some popcorn for us. Reshuffle the cards while I’m gone, but don’t CHEAT!”  
I laugh a bit at that. Of course, I wouldn’t cheat, I’m practically a professional, and professionals don’t cheat.  
“So, um, what’s the school like here?” Amber asks suddenly.  
“Well, it’s school. Very boring.” I say.  
I notice Amber looks a bit disappointed at that. Shoot.  
“I- I mean it’s nothing bad! The kids are nice, and the teachers aren’t all boring. Um. There’s lots of class parties and school events, even though we’re in middle school. It doesn’t suck, I swear!”   
She smiles.   
“Well, that’s a relief, heh.”  
Casey comes back and puts two big bowls of popcorn on the ground.  
“Umm… What is this?” Mari asks  
Casey laughs.  
“It’s just normal popcorn and caramel popcorn, Jeez. You never had Caramel popcorn before?”  
“No, it’s just… It looks weird.” Mari blurts out. That gets Casey to burst out in laughter.  
“Just try it! It’s not that bad!”  
“But...”  
“Just do it!”  
“Fine!” Mari takes a piece of caramel popcorn, and places it into her mouth, hesitantly.  
I watch as her face goes from fear, to confusion, to thoughtful, to joy. When she finishes chewing, she shouts,  
“WAIT, THAT’S ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD!”  
“Jeez Mari, It’s 9:00 pm! People are sleeping!” I tell her. We all laugh.

That morning, as I’m eating a breakfast of eggs and toast with jelly, Casey calls down to me;  
“‘Lyssa!”  
“Yea?”  
“You and Mari have to walk Amber to school today, I have to get to work earlier.”  
“Wh- Amber’s starting school today?”  
What’s going to happen when we get there? Are all my friends going to want to be her friend instead of mine? Are all my teachers going to think that she’s so much more polite than me? That her grades are better than mine, and that that means I’m the disappointment of the family? Are they going to think she’s so much prettier than me? Are- are they going to think that I’m the worst student ever compared to-  
“’Lyssa?”  
“Yeah?”  
“You kind of, uhm… blanked.”  
“Oh! I’m, uhm, sorry. About that. I’ll try to stop doing that.”  
“Cool… Yea, so, I have to go now. Will you girls be alright?”  
I give a thumbs up.  
“Yep! We’ll be fine.” Mari popped in to say.  
“Good to know, Mari. Take care of Miss ‘lyss here, K?”  
“Can do! Avoid traffic at all costs!”  
Casey grabbed her keys and said she’ll try to on her way out.  
Mari looked at me.  
“You good?”  
“Um. Yes. C’mon, Let’s go get Amber.”  
Mari followed me upstairs. I knocked on Amber’s door.  
“Come in.”  
We walked in.  
“Wow, you work fast.” Mari said after looking how Amber had decorated her room.  
Amber looked up from her desk, where she was writing something on a planner.  
“Oh, uh, Thanks. I couldn’t sleep that much last night, so I used the time to organize my room. It’s crazy to think I’ll be living here now.” She smiled.  
“Yep.” I said.  
There was a bit of an awkward silence after that. Mari broke it.  
“So, are you ready to go?”   
“Oh,” She grabs her backpack and a sweater from her closet. “Let me grab some things from downstairs first, then we can leave.”  
We walk downstairs  
“Hey, where’s Casey?”  
“Oh, she had to get to work early, so we’re walking.”  
“Oh, then I guess I need my hat and gloves. You guys can get ready, I’ll be right back.”  
She runs back upstairs, and Mari and I walk to the kitchen.  
“I wonder what class she’s going to be in.”  
I look up.  
“I hope she won’t be in ours,” I reply to Mari, “I don’t want her to start any drama.”  
“Oh psh,”  
“What?”  
“You’ve been so mean to her ever since you met her. She’s your sister now, you have to treat her like one.”  
“Whatever. Oh, Oreos!”  
“Sweet, Casey gave me some too!”

We lock the door, and start the short walk to Rosa Anne Middle School, the middle school I’ve been going to for the past year and a half. Once we get to the courtyard, I see a couple friends and classmates staring.  
“Well, Crap.” I say under my breath.  
We make it to our classroom – oh yeah, did I mention Amber’s homeroom is the same as ours? – and find our seats. I notice Amber’s seat is next to Hailey Bennet and Haley Plum. Otherwise known as the most popular girls in 7th grade at Rosa Anne Middle. They became friends in 2nd grade when Haley Plum moved next door to Hailey Bennet, instantly bonding over their shared name. They aren’t beat-you-up-bully mean, but they’re really not nice either. They are going to eat her alive. Once Ms. Avery starts class, I nudge Mari and subtly point to the situation with the H-girls and Amber. All Mari does is roll her eyes, but whatever. I know I’m right.  
The Haileys/Haleys start passing notes all throughout class with Amber. That’s weird. I thought they’d be making fun of her.   
After class, Amber and the two walk out together giggling. What? That’s unexpected. And annoying. I go up to Mari.  
“Hey, ready to go?”  
“They’re just getting her trust, you know.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“You know. They’re going to gain her trust then drop and humiliate her. I thought you would’ve stopped her from talking to them.”  
“It’ll be fiiine. C’mon, let’s walk to Mr. Philips’ class together.”  
“Nope, I have to make sure the H-girls don’t ruin your stepsister’s social life on her first day of school.”  
“Please, that’s not going to happen.”  
“Whatever. You can walk to Mr. Phillips’ class alone.”   
She walks away. Ugh. I swear to Oreos, if my day gets any worse than this, I will scream.  
After two more boring morning classes, made worse by Amber giggling with the Haleys, it’s finally lunch, and I get to talk to Mari again.  
“Hey! What are you thinking of getting?”  
She rolls her eyes.  
“I got a packed lunch, remember? Jeez.”  
Okay. So, she’s still mad at me.  
“Uh, Sorry?”  
“Whatever. I have something to tell you about you-know-who and her new friends.”  
“Okay, now I’m listening!”  
“You weren’t listening before?”  
She fake hits me. I laugh.  
“I mean, I was, but, like, you have my interest! Now!” I blurt.  
We laugh.  
“Okay, so. What about them.”  
“I heard that the H’s are going to embarrass her in front of the entire cafeteria tomorrow.”  
“Well, how in the world would they do that?” I said, even though I realized it must be easy to embarrass amber, since she’s so shy and closed-off.  
“Tomorrow afternoon, approximately 12:03 pm, Hailey B. will bring Amber to The H’s normal lunch table. They will chat for about 2 minutes, waiting for Haley P. When Haley P. arrives, she will ‘accidently’ spill her lunch all over Amber, which consists of the messiest, most stain-prone food in the cafeteria. They’ve also convinced amber to wear a bright white shirt, I assume to make sure everyone sees the mess.”  
“Oh jeez! How did you find all this out?”  
“Well, I did have a little bit of help from expertly hiding my phone in places where no one would see it recording.” She wiggled her phone, which had a video pause on the screen of The H’s, but Quickly hid it when Miss Laine, the lunch chaperone, gave her a dirty look. We giggled.

“We have to warn her!” I said loudly as we walked back to class. A couple 8th graders looked at me. I lowered my voice.   
“She’ll hate me forever if she knew I knew about this and didn’t help her.”  
“Oh, so now you care about her?” Mari asked playfully. I swatted her jokingly.  
“Ah, shut up! If she must be my stepsister, I don’t want her finding a reason to get my dad to like her better.”  
Mari rolls her eyes.   
“Whatever.” We make it to class.  
When we get inside, Haley plum is talking to Amber.  
“-so anyways my mom- “  
“Amber?”  
She looked up.  
“Um. Yea?”  
“I just um. Could you uh- “  
Haley was glaring at me. I gulped. Mari spoke up.  
“Could we talk to you alone really quick?”  
“Oh- um, Yes. I can.”  
Amber got up and followed us out. Haley glared at us. Mari smiled back.

Once we were safely out of range from Haley P’s ears, we stopped.  
“Okay, so, what’s this about? “Amber asks.   
“Haley Plum. Hailey Bennet. Bad. Not good. St- “  
“Wh- “  
“Aly? Let me do the talking.” I nodded. She turned to amber.  
“Questions wait until after I’m finished. Amber. You know Hailey Bennet and Haley Plum? Right? I would assume so, since you’ve been hanging out with them all day.”  
“Ye- “  
“Tomorrow. Afternoon. At Approximately 12:09 pm, Haley Plum will spill lunch all over you. On purpose. We’re here to warn y- “  
Amber puts her hands up.  
“Stop.”   
“We’re trying to hel- “  
“Nope. You’re not. You’re here to protect me from making anymore friends, because you think I need to rely on you. Right?  
“n- “  
“You don’t want me making any more friends because that would mean I don’t need you anymore. Right? Well guess what. Too bed. And you know what? Hailey Bennet and Haley Plum are cool. You’re just mean.”  
“Amber- “I say.  
She walks back to class.  
“Shoot. How did that happen.”  
I sigh.   
“Well, now she hates us.”  
“You’re probably wrong! I’m sure she’s just mad.”  
I look at Mari. She sighs back.  
“Whatever. Let’s go.” She takes my arm and we go to class.

The rest of the day is sluggish. When our last class is over, Mari and I wait outside at the door for Amber to walk her out. When she gets to the door, she just walks past us. Great.   
Mari gets picked up by her mom, which means I must ride home with Amber alone. I pray to Oreos this will go well.  
“Hey kiddos. How was your first day of school, Amber?” Casey said when we got in the car.  
“It was okay.”   
“Did you make any friends?”  
“I guess.”  
she stops trying to make conversation.

Once We’re home, Amber goes up to her room until dinner.  
Casey makes stir fry two hours later, and we both come out of hour rooms.  
“Oh! Um. Hey?”  
“Hi. Can I get to the stairs? “  
“Oh, Yeah. Sorry.” I move out of the way. She goes down the stairs. I hear her mutter “Jeez” on her way down.  
We’re silent at dinner, which I can tell bothers Casey, but I do nothing to break it.  
After dinner is even more quiet, even when I brush my teeth, and I have an electric toothbrush. I try to make conversation when we walk to our rooms to go to bed, but she ignores me. 

The next morning, I’m so tired, I almost brush my teeth with my hairbrush. I stayed up all night just thinking about how to make things right with Amber before she gets embarrassed Infront of the whole lunch period. I couldn’t think of anything, so now I’m exhausted and Amber hates me. I eat my Captain-Crunch in darkness, I’m too tired to open my eyes.

When I get to school, Mari comes over.  
“Jeez, did you get ANY sleep last night? I told you to stop staying up so late reading like a week ago!”  
“Mnrghg. It wasn’t that. I tried to come up with ideas to get Amber to not hate me, and as you can see,” I gestured to the lack of Amber near me.   
“I couldn’t come up with any.”

We go to our first class. Then our second. Then our third. Amber ignores me the whole time. Lunch creeps up on me all day, and I still don’t have any ideas to get her to like me again. Or at least tolerate me.  
Mari and I sit at a table near Haley P. and Hailey B.’s table, and, as promised, Haley P. and Amber were sitting there just chatting. I hold my breath as my watch counts down the seconds until 12:05 pm  
5… 4… 3… 2…  
1…  
0.  
I look around. Hailey B. isn’t in sight. I release my breath. I keep my eyes open, until its 12:06. It couldn’t be that Hailey’s late, because Haley P. is extremely strict about time. I was her partner for an English project last year, and I said I’d make it to the library to study at 4:30. I got there at 4:33, and she requested to change partners.   
So, that would only mean it’s not happening!  
I look at Mari and smile.   
She smiles back.  
Amber’s not going to get embarrassed. maybe our relationship will get bett-  
Mari’s smile drops as she looks to her left. I turn around and see what she’s looking at.   
Hailey Bennet. With a red lunch tray. On it is spaghetti, a cup of pomegranate juice, runny mashed potatoes, and a sloppy joe. I pray to Oreos that those are just her favorite foods. She makes it to the table. Amber looks up right as Hailey ‘trips’ on the chair and spills all over her.  
“Oops!” Hailey tries to stifle a laugh.  
The cafeteria went silent.  
Haley doesn’t contain her giggles. That does it.  
I get up out of my seat  
“Wait Alyssa- “   
I grab a pomegranate juice from some kid’s tray.  
“Hey that’s mine!” I don’t listen.  
I make it over to Haley, Hailey, and Amber. Amber has tears welling up in her eyes. Hailey looks at me.  
“Can I help you?” She says in a pretend sweet voice.  
I take the juice and pour it over her head. She screams. Haley looks shocked but laughs a bit. I grab the sad sloppy joe on the floor and throw it at her face. It transforms from amused to fury.   
“How DARE Y- “  
Her sentence is cut short from a kid I recognize from science class.  
“FOOD FIGHT!”  
Chaos erupts around me. Food flying everywhere. A glob of spaghetti noodles flies over my head. I watch some poor 6th grader get hit in the face with mashed potatoes. I grab Amber’s hand and Mari runs to me. We run out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. We stop to catch our breath. We all three looks at each other. We burst out laughing  
“Did you see Haley P’s face? She was RED with anger!”  
“Oh my gosh and Miss Laine’s face during the whole thing. I don’t think she’s seen anything like that in her whole career.”   
We laugh a bit more. After a little while, we just sit in the silence. I take a breath.  
“I’m sorry. I know you want to have more friends than just us, and I’m sorry the first friends you made we tried to stop you. Even if they did turn out to be mean.”  
“Yeah,” Mari says. “We should’ve given you a little bit of space.”  
Amber looks at us, tears in her eyes again.  
“Aw, guys! I’m sorry! I should’ve trusted you. My friends at my last school turned out to really suck and I guess. I don’t know. I just got scared. And I guess my first friends at this school did betray me again. So, I don’t know. Is that okay?”  
“Of course, its ok!” Mari smiles.  
“You just chose the wrong people. We’ll show you who’s actually nice at this school. I promise they exist.” Amber smiles.  
“Okay. I trust you.”  
We all hug.  
I hear a gasp. I let go of the hug and I turn around to see Principal Rahmlow.  
“Girls! How did you get food all over you! And what are you doing in the hallway? Go to the girls locker-room immediately and clean yourself up!”  
We tell her okay and get up to go to the locker-room. Principal Rahmlow tells her phone to remind her to get her walkie-talkie fixed. She goes around the corner to the cafeteria.  
“WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS?!”  
We giggle as we walk down to the Locker-room.

The end!


End file.
